This initiative is that of James George, author and independent journalist. It is intended to inspire voters, political parties, and elected officials to improve the qualifications and evaluation process for candidates for public office.

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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

How to Select a US Member of the House of Representatives, Part 1 of 2

First, begin by understanding the Job Model for a US Member of the House of Representatives.

“As per the Constitution, the U.S. House of Representatives makes and passes federal laws. The House is one of Congress’s two chambers (the other is the U.S. Senate), and part of the federal government’s legislative branch. The number of voting representatives in the House is fixed by law at no more than 435, proportionally representing the population of the 50 states.”

Article I,Section 2of theConstitutionsets threequalificationsfor representatives. Each representative must: (1) be at least twenty-five years old; (2) have been a citizen of the United States for the past seven years; and (3) be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state they represent.

As with other Constitutionally-defined requirements, they are out of date and wholly inadequate. Yet, leave it to Congress to correct that. They won’t.

We the People and our political parties can force changes and improvements.

Understand that at the time of the birth of the nation, citizens didn’t live that long and rose to maturity in life early. The economy was largely agrarian and the population was sparse. The nation has grown and is vastly more complex as are the needs of the people.

Job Model of a US Member of the House of Representatives

“Whether working on Capitol Hill or in his/her congressional district, a representative’s schedule is extremely busy. Often beginning early in the morning with topical briefings, most representatives move quickly among caucus and committee meetings and hearings. They vote on bills, speak with constituents and other groups, and review constituent mail, press clips and various reports. Work can continue into the evening with receptions or fundraising events.”

“The House is charged with the passage of federallegislation, known asbills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to thePresidentfor consideration. In addition to this basic power, the House has certain exclusive powers which include the power to initiate all bills related to revenue, theimpeachmentof federal officers, who are sent to trial in the Senate, and in cases wherein no candidate receives a majority ofelectorsforPresident, the duty falls upon the House to elect one of the top three recipients of electors for that office, with one vote given to each state for that purpose.

Thepartywith a majority of seats in the House is known as themajority party. The next-largest party is the minority party. TheSpeaker, committee chairs, and some other officials are generally from the majority party; they have counterparts (for instance, the "ranking members" of committees) in the minority party.committees) in the minority party.

The Constitution provides that the House may choose its own Speaker.[33]Although not explicitly required by the Constitution, every Speaker has been a member of the House. The Constitution does not specify the duties and powers of the Speaker, which are instead regulated by the rules and customs of the House. Speakers have a role both as a leader of the House and the leader of their party (which need not be the majority party; theoretically, a member of theminority partycould be elected as Speaker with the support of a fraction of members of the majority party). Under thePresidential

The Speaker is the presiding officer of the House but does not preside over every debate. Instead, s/he delegates the responsibility of presiding to other members in most cases. The presiding officer sits in a chair in the front of the House chamber. The powers of the presiding officer are extensive; one important power is that of controlling the order in which members of the House speak. No member may make a speech or a motion unless s/he has first been recognized by the presiding officer. Moreover, the presiding officer may rule on a "point of order" (a member's objection that a rule has been breached); the decision is subject to appeal to the whole House.

Speakers serve as chairs of their party's steering committee, which is responsible for assigning party members to other House committees. The Speaker chooses the chairmen of standing committees, appoints most of the members of theRules Committee, appoints all members of conference committees, and determines which committees consider bills.Each party elects afloor leader, who is known as theMajority LeaderorMinority Leader. The Minority Leader heads his party in the House, and the Majority Leader is his party's second-highest-ranking official, behind the Speaker. Party leaders decide what legislation members of their party should either support or oppose.

In the 112th Congress, the Democratic Party has an additional Assistant Minority Leader,Jim Clyburn, who ranks between the whips and the caucus/conference chair.After the whips, the next ranking official in the House party's leadership is theParty Conference Chair(styled as the Republican Conference Chair and Democratic Caucus Chair).

The chairs ofHouse committees, particularly influential standing committees such asAppropriations,Ways and Means, andRules, are powerful but not officially part of House leadership hierarchy. Until the post of Majority Leader was created, the Chair of Ways and Means was thede factomajority leader.

About Me

Jim George studied at Ohio State and Franklin University with a degree in Business Administration with focus on Industrial Technology and Operations Research. He served in the director and executive levels of management for Sherwin Williams, Bendix Automation, The American Broadcasting Companies. He was founder and CEO of Talon Publishing before selling to D. Appleton Company where he was Vice President. Subsequently he was a consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers.